Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
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“When you were a cub, I looked you in the eye and saw no fear. I believed that one day you would bring peace to the jungle. But you have become a man now.”
Quick fox: C+
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is a mixed bag of groundbreaking technology and fascinating cutthroat politics, but is spoiled by a disastrous finale.
Winding Dragon
A few years ago I reviewed Disney’s 2016 live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book and gave it a pleasant enough rating, basically saying that if you liked Disney’s 1967 animated version, then you’ll enjoy their updated version.
The same can’t be said for Andy Serkis’ motion-capture 2018 drama: Mowgli.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle relishes in separating itself from Disney’s more picturesque depiction of a kid trying to survive in the jungle. For Mowgli (Rohan Chand), tests of loyalty to the wolf pack — especially to the pack leader Akela (Peter Mullan) — is the foundation for his entire character arc rather than being a separate plot point. Baloo (Andy Serkis) is no longer a hippie, bee-loving honey bear and more of a grizzled, retired Vietnam War veteran who spends his free time instructing wannabe cub scouts the best ways how not to have a painful death. By far the biggest and most important difference is that background knowledge of Rudyard Kipling’s storied history of colonialism (even, to a certain extent, the racist criticism against King Louie in Disney’s 1967 animated film) is absolutely necessary to understand Mowgli. I’d be underselling it to say the last 10-15 minutes of the film has a massive pacing problem, which is brought on by a sudden shift to drive the anti-colonialist metaphor as deeply as possible into the hearts of everyone who has ever heard the phrase, “White Man’s Burden.”
But I might be getting ahead of myself here. Let’s start from the beginning: a silky voiceover narration from the ancient Indian Python Kaa (Cate Blanchett), which bears a strikingly similar quality to another certain fantasy franchise that Andy Serkis and Cate Blanchett are known for being in… Let’s just say I wonder if Serkis got any phone calls from Peter Jackson about that opening. Kaa tells us of the night she saw the breaking of jungle-law: Shere Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) murders a group of humans, Bagheera (Christian Bale) rescues a man-cub from Shere Khan’s claws, and Nisha (Naomie Harris) and Vihaan (Eddie Marsan) of the wolf pack agree to raise Mowgli as a wolf.
An unsettled truce settles the jungle for many years…until Mowgli comes of wolf age. When a wolf (or I suppose, man-cub) is of age, they undergo the “Running” — a race where, if Bagheera captures one of the wolf cubs before they cross the finish line, they are exiled from the pack. Kind of excessive and a bit mean-spirited, but…sure, why not. Should Mowgli fail, he will no longer be under the protection of the wolves, making him easy prey for Shere Khan to hunt.
The Running is a perfect place to break away from regurgitating the plot and analyze some of these characters, because even though it’s not the climax, the Running is a good summarization of the stakes for all the characters:
Akela, realizing his future as pack leader is directly tied to Mowgli, is rightfully concerned about a civil war brewing within his pack.
Bagheera, afraid that Shere Khan will murder Mowgli regardless of the pack’s protection, wants Mowgli to join the nearest human village and become a man. (I guess you could say that Bagheera wants to make a man out of — okay, okay, wrong Disney song, sorry). Bagheera is probably the most developed side character in Mowgli, and Christian Bale does an amazing job with giving an iconic character emotion and depth. There’s actually an emotional backstory for Bagheera that, arguably, would have been a more compelling story to tell instead of rehashing Mowlgi’s. … *sigh oh well.
Baloo believes the pack’s protection is enough to raise Mowgli to adulthood, and even though he has all the brutish charms that only Andy Serkis’ voice can deliver, he’s a big softy underneath.
Bhoot (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) is an albino wolf who is mercilessly bullied by the rest of the wolves for being different, and just wants to be Mowgli’s friend. Literally because no one else will be. He’s a brand new character to the Mowgli tales that has gotten a decent amount of backlash for his treatment within the film. He’s kind of there as a punching bag for other characters, and is exploited as an emotional plot device without being given any autonomy of his own. I was pretty disappointed with where the film took his character. While viewing the film, I was okay with his usage, but after thinking on it, I realized they could have done a heck of a lot more with him.
Nisha…well, she feels…worried? Honestly, it’s really frustrating that yet another movie about Mowgli decides to ignore the very real and very playable adopted mother/adopted son dynamic. Maybe it’s because Disney’s 1999 animated Tarzan already did that too well.
[Insert Phil Collins song here.]
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is not my generation’s Jungle Book. It’s dark, bitter, and filled with cutthroat political games. So, naturally, I loved the first act. The film tells Mowgli’s story on a level that is unlike any other version, and for the first hour, I ate it all up. I was into the characters, into the story; for the first time, Mowgli as a character felt fresh and unpredictable. Sure, I definitely knew some characters — Nisha, Bhoot, and Mowlgi’s eldest wolf-sibling Gray Brother (Jack Reynor) — were being underused. But the visual spectacle is outstanding (despite a few lapses in the motion-capture rendering); at certain points — particularly with Baloo’s facial expressions or the velveteen sheen of Bagheera’s coat — I had to take a moment, stop thinking about the film, and just allow the beauty of it fully sink in.
Then we arrived in the human village. I don’t know how to say this without being weird about it, so here it goes: the human part sucked. As soon as Mowgli became assimilated (and yes, there is a reason I’m using that word) into the human world, the film became all kinds of messy. They introduced us to John Lockwood (Matthew Rhys), a British-colonial big game hunter who has been hired by the local Indian village to kill Shere Khan, and stands in for a not-so-subtle jab at Rudyard Kipling’s love of British imperialism. The moments of human indoctrination felt very forced in this film, because in the back of my mind, there was never any doubt Mowgli was going to return to the jungle. Because, well, that’s kind of the whole point of Mowgli. In the original book, specifically the chapter “Tiger! Tiger!” Mowgli kills Shere Khan by arranging a buffalo stampede on the sleeping tiger, which later inspires many of the villagers to believe he’s a sorcerer and run him out of the village. Now, that’s not quite what happens in Mowgli, but it’s definitely the closest any adaption as ever gotten to the original subject matter.
Anyway, the problem with the last act of Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is that it rushes to the finish line. Ironically, it’s like the film failed its own Running. The final moment of growth for Mowgli is supposed to be his realization that he doesn’t have to be wolf or man — he’s a little bit of both. But that message is confused underneath some very, very poor character development. Mowgli basically resolves all of his conflicts (every single character from the jungle is not on speaking terms with Mowgli once he becomes a member of the village) in an extremely short time frame. It’s maybe 10 minutes worth of screen time. And somewhere within there, the audience is led to believe this adolescent kid is supposed to be the next great legend of the jungle (according to Kaa)…because he breaks every known law of the jungle and literally resorts to anarchy and murder to get his own way. I think this sounds more like the making of a tyrant. Wrapped around all that is a very unnecessary history lesson about why colonialism is bad. There really isn’t anything more to be gleaned beyond that — just…colonialism is bad. Which, hopefully the majority of people watching this film already know, so it just feels pandering. Especially considering how much effort they made into making this point without actually breaking the fourth wall The Office-style and having Mowgli stare directly into the camera while the colonist drunkenly boasts about his hunting exploits around a campfire filled with disapproving villagers.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle will be a divisive film because it does well in too many areas to be dismissed, but inconsistencies can make the viewing experience maddening. It does have unique takes on old characters (I didn’t even talk about how much fun Benedict Cumberbatch is as Shere Khan), so you’ll either love the film for its innovative technology and dark depiction of a classic tale… or you’re going to find the journey to the center of uncanny valley too much to bear. Overall, if I had to describe Mowgli in one word: frustrating. The voice acting and the complexities of Mowgli’s relationships to the jungle are undeniably a step above; the first hour gave me super high expectations for the film. Except its rapid-fire ending does a belly flop into a mud pit and its confusing moral message is an indication the script probably needed a huge rewrite. It’s a film you can comfortably remove from your Netflix watch list.